Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

cl. (Above) Patrick TImothy crosses a river en route to a second-place finis h. (Lett) Josh McLevy won the Conn Slate AMAINETRA Hare Scrambles. It was his second win in a row. By Cheri Alix Photos by Jay Chittenden and Alix UNION, cr. JUNE 28 fter weeks of seeming ly neverending rain , the Ramblers Motorcycle Cl u b fi na lly go t a break long eno ugh to se t up the course for the Conn Stat e Ha re Scramb les , th e sixth round of the AMA /NETRA Hare Scrambles Series. And , fo r the second week in a row , H onda ri d er Jos h McLevy emerged on top of th e heap after completing seven laps of the 6-mile course in a little over tw o hours. With a limited sp ace for a wid e-open start, th e rid ers were lined up Blackwater-style, with four riders to a row. Onl y thr ee riders, however, lined up on the front row in the AA class : McLevy, Patrick Timoth y and Ken Val entine . Missing from the line was number-two rid er Todd Levesque, who was ab sent from tod ay' s race. When the green flag dropped, McLevy grabbed the holeshot and wa s followed b y Timoth y a n d Valentine. Five sec onds later, th e second row, mad e up of Arthur Menzel, Luke Me eil and Brian Tu cker, took off. Wit hin four miles, McLevy had put 15 seconds on second -p laced Timot hy. Va lentine fell behind a no ther 30 se conds . Timot hy d id not allow McLevy to gai n any mor e time and kep t the pace, coming around jus t 16 seconds down on McLev y. Valentine wa s now back one m in u te fr om McLevy, w ith M cNeil, Menzel, Jason Cayer and Bria n Lawson hot on his tail. Durin g th e fi rst half of th e r ac e, McLevy wa s p utting a cons tan t 16 seconds on Timothy, with both riders runnin g away from the pa ck. Valentine was A 32 holding down third pl ace, ba ck some three minu tes by th e end of the third lap . McNeil was running in fou rth place with a comfortable lead over fifth place wh en he smashe d his cha ingu id e a nd broke his cha in. This moved Lawson up in to th e four th -pl a ce p o sitio n, w it h Expert 200cc r ider Je sse Ber thia u me moving in to fift h pla ce . Bu t Ber thiau me' s reign in the top five wo uld be short-lived . On the fourth lap, the club rerouted th e track, ribbon in g o ff a sec t io n to mak e the riders take a hard left inst ead of going straight. Berthiaume wa s one of . the first riders through and missed the tum. "I saw two gu ys standi ng on the side of the trail pointing, but I didn't know what the y were pointing at ," he said . "I sa w the ribbons at the last second and drove right thr ough them. " Berthiaume got so tied up in ribbon th at he had to remove his rear w heel and brakes, resulting in him losing several minutes. The ribbon ,inciden t eventually led to him DNFing. Lawson also ran in to misfortune on the fourth lap. His p robl em wa a flat rea r tire. This ca used Law son to lose sev eral minutes in the pits, all owing Dave Gunn an d Ca yer to mov e into fourth an d fifth . Mean wh ile, ta king ov er the lead in the Expert class was Cycle Connection's Bob Santheso n. "I saw Jesse on the sid e of the trail, all wra p pe d in the banners, and I just started pu sh ing it," Santheson said . . By the end of the sixth lap, Santheson had worked his wa y through the pack into sixth p lace, just ahead of Lawson . On the s ixth la p, a fe w s pecta to rs d ecided to help keep the race interesting by throwing a large rock an d an eightfoot log in the trail. McLevy was the first to encounter the obstacles. "You come aro und a few qu ick turns, then ove r a hill," he said . "I could n't see th e ro ck un til I hi t it. It w a s a b ig , squa re-edged bou ld er tha t just blended in. I slammed righ t into. I can' t believe I didn' t go d own ." The log wa s rolled leng thwise into a rut and no one slammed straight int o it, bu t it did cause a few riders to s lide sideways while trying to avoid it. Luckily, both obstacl es were removed for the final lap . It to ok McL evy two hours and 15 minutes to com ple te the seven-lap race with two minutes to spare ove r secondplaced Timothy. "I had no one to ride with all d ay," McLevy said . "It makes it kind of bo ring an d ha rd to keep th e pa ce w he n yo u don't have anyone to feed off of." Taking thi rd place, down so me five minutes on Timo th y, wa s Va lenti ne . Val entine had also pulled away fro m the p a ck early in the day a nd spent most of his time .riding a lone . Fou rth place went to Ca yer, who was able to pu t the mov e on Gunn on the final lap, leaving Gunn to settle for fifth place on the d ay. Sa nt heson was able to ho ld off th e hard -charging Lawson to post his best finish to da te wit h sixth overall and the Expe rt-class High Point award . Lawson fin ishe d ba ck one mi nu te to tak e se ven th ove rall. In the 250cc Expert class, it wa s Jeff Sta ples edgi ng out Josh Hackett by 20 seconds for the class win. The Junio r event was run earlier in the da y, and Suzuki-mo un ted Na tha n Kanney took first-p lace honors bu t not with- ou t some pressure by Ryan Dellagh elfa. Dellaghel fa had his closest finis h behind Kanney, taking seco nd place d own just one minute. Jason Kurys ca me a rou nd third, back 3 1/ 2 minutes. In the Wom en ' s class, it w as Heidi Land on w ho ran a way w ith th e class win, coming aro und six minutes ahead of second-p laced Dawn Silvia. William Rowe con tinu ed his dominance of the Mini class, taking the win by ei gh t m inu tes ov er second-pla ced Sean Mullaney. 0 Conn Slate HS Union, Connecticut Results: June 28, 1998 (Round 6) G RAN D CHA MP: Josh Mcl.evy (Ho n). O /A A : Bob Sant heson (H on) . O fA C: John M orrison (H en) . AA : 1. Jo s h McLev y {Hon}: 2. Pa tri ck .Ttmothy (Kaw): 3. Jason Cayer (KTM); 4. Dave Gu n n (KTM ); .5. Bria n Lawson (Yam) . 2SO A: 1. Jeff Sta ples (Yam ); 2. jos h Hac ke tt (Hon): 3. Dennis Decker (KT M); 4. D.J. Lis (Hus): 5. David Clark. 200 A: 1. Bob San theson (Hen): 2. Na tha n Kannev (S u z); 3. Bre tt Cos te llo (Ya m) ; 4. De n ny A nderso~ ( Ka w ): 5. Ch ris Crispi n (Ho n). VET A: I . Ro bert Ca rlson (Suz ); 2. La nce Longo uz); 3. Jon Man chan (Ya m); 4. Ma rk Wh ite' (Suz ); 5. t cYa mT; 3. Ca rl Ca rlson (KTM ); 4. Pau l Cao ue-tte (Kaw): 5 . Joh n Nolan. J R: 1. Na tha n Ka n ney (Su z); 2. Ryan Dell dgh elfa (Ya m) ; 3. Jason Kurys (He n): 4. Robert Langen back (Yam ); 5. [u..tin Tuckff (Yam). . WMN: 1. H e id i Landon (Ka wj : 2. Dawn S il via (Kaw); 3. Dawn Shayer IKaw ). M INI : 1. Willi am Row e (Kaw): 2. Sea n Mullane y (Hon); 3. T.J. Swistrc (Yam); 4. Ada m Simcoc k (Hon ); 5. Darron Capote (Kaw).

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